City of God Film Critique

City of God EssayCity of God takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More specifically in a sprawling slum, or favella referred to as the City of God. This is a derisive name, as the audience learns, in that this is a place certainly devoid of anything to do with religion, peace, or tranquility. The main story revolves around Rocket, a well meaning young man who grows up in this chaotic world. Rocket has plans to escape the city by becoming a photographer, even though he has normal teenage problems like how to find money, and possibly love. He must do so while also trying to stay alive in a violent environment of drugs and gang warfare. This harrowing tale is told through a modern lens; with frenzied editing, multiple story lines, and foreshadowing in a natural almost documentary style through the perspective of the main character.

Right away in the opening scene, the audience is introduced to the City of God. A shot of a knife being sharpened is shown over and over and quickly cuts to scenes of a live chicken being cleaned and prepared to be eaten. There is celebratory like Brazilian music being played live, and shots showing women dancing while the rest of the meal is being prepared. It is clear that this is a poor area of a city, possibly preparing live animals themselves is the only choice the people have since there are likely no supermarkets in this area. The gleaming knife gives a sense of violence and power. Then what can be debated as the best emotive performance by a farm animal, a second chicken who is tied to a post is witnessing the first chicken being killed, plucked, and cleaned. An awareness washes over the fowl, it is implied, that this is soon to be his fate too. But in a stroke of luck, the chicken comes loose from his tether and makes a hasty escape. This is when the main antagonist of the film is introduced, Lil Ze. In a parallel shot, Ze becomes aware that the chicken is escaping and tells everyone there to chase after the chicken and to...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...Film Review: City of God
By the middle of the twentieth century, “favelas” or slums had grown to astronomical sizes, containing mass amounts of impoverished people. These favelas were overrun by hunger, filth, drugs, and disorder, making them extremely unsuitable places to live. While the police and government do not get involved with the issues of the slums, security is provided by the community and, more often than not, drug gangs keeping control over crime. Life in a slum of Brazil is certainly challenging in more ways than one: overcoming hunger, enduring acts of crime, and robbery are just a few examples. The actual slums themselves are arranged so haphazardly on the outskirts of cities that it makes them nearly impossible to tread through freely, and negatively contributes to the disorder that already engulfs the (seemingly) infinitely vast slums. In the City of God, all of these issues are portrayed strongly through a story plot based on a true man’s life and great visual detail, explicitly revealing the harsh struggle of those who lived in favelas during this time.
Although not shown in an exact favela, rather a government project, the audience is able to perceive what it would look like. A dramatic scene where the camera casts an aerial view over the city-like slum proves how unorganized and chaotic these slums can look. All the buildings and structures are...

...
Final FilmCritique: Lawrence of Arabia 1962
Crystal Evans
ENG225: Introduction to Film
Instructor: Sarah Carson
Date Submitted: 10/3/2014
Contexual Information
Title: Lawrence of Arabia 1962
Director: David Lean
Cinematographer: Frederick A. Young
Major Actors:
Peter O’Toole – T.E. Lawrence
Alec Guinness – Prince Feisal
Anthony Quin – Auda Abu Tayi
Jack Hawkins – General Allenby
Omar Sharif – Sherif Ali
Claude Rain – Mr. Dryden
Year of Release: 1962
Type of Film: Epic Biographical Adventure Drama
Genre: Epic Film
Story/Plot
Story
An expert on the region, Lawrence volunteers to be sent to Arabia, a country he comes to love even more as he adopts its customs and dress. Dryden decides that Arab Bureau needs its own man on the spot, and sends Lawrence to Arabia; Lawrence decides to cross the Nefud and take Akaba, endearing him to both Arabs and British; Allenby decides to sit back and let Damascus fall apart, so he can step in and take the reins. But after experiencing the desert’s brutality firsthand, he realizes the futility of trying to change the Arabs’ squabbling nature, he abandons it. Lawrence tries to mold Arabia to suit him through his strength of character, charisma, and leadership qualities. Lawrence goes and takes Akaba, crossing the impossible-to-cross Nefud desert; he solves the Auda-Ali tribal dispute by executing the wrongdoer, his friend Gasim; he competes...

...differences between national cinema and Hollywood cinema by using Rio de Janeiro¡¯s famous filmCity of God. There will be three parts in my following main body, the first part is a simple review of the filmCity of God, I will try to use the review to show the film structure and some different new points from this, show the how did the ¡®Shocking, frightening, thrilling and funny¡¯ (Nev Pierce) work in the film. The second part is my discussion parts; I will refer some typical Hollywood big name films such as Gangs in New York, Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, and Good Fellas to discuss the main differences between City of God and other national films. The third part is my summary, I will use my knowledge to analyse why there have big different between both kind of films and their advantages.
Part One
By simply review, I will say, "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") is the story of a boy who lives in a "favela" what is the word of slum in english on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The "favela" is like a shantytown witch called "Cidade de Deus" in the film. And from the beginning to the end, throughout this stylish movie both the boy and the favela grow.
In the film, we can see the story telling styles are quite like the some Hollywood...

...Laura Schneider
Sociology 1
The City of God
After watching “The City of God”, I personally can see the correlation that crime plays in association with poverty, social influence, and lack of law and order. Though my perspective vastly varies from that of sociological theorists, I think we can both conclude that this movie is an extreme representation as to what can occur when society shuns away disadvantaged youths to a place that lacks justice as well as ethical and moral responsibilities. Sociological perspectives regarding crime emphasize the interconnections between conformity and deviance in different social contexts (cite). In the following paper I will attempt to analyze three sociological theories and apply their views to the movie “The City of God”. These theories include; Functionalist, Internationalist, Conflict, and Control Theories.
The Functionalist perspective, otherwise known as functionalism is a major sociological theoretical perspective introduced by Emile Durkheim. Functionalism interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to society as a whole. For example, disorder in a social system, such as crime and deviant behavior affects more than just the individual but society as a whole. Disruption of the social order can bring about social challenges and change. In the movie, “The City of God” deviant behavior by the main...

...Elements in Wild Geese
Amanda Bartlett
ENG 125
Victoria Stamm
May 5, 2013
I chose Wild Geese by Mary Oliver for this particular analysis. I found this poem to be one of the most interesting of our assigned readings. I originally picked this poem because of the title. I love animals and we have wild geese in our town. Most of them leave in the winter but we have some that stick out the winter and snow with all of the local residents. I am very familiar with geese. So in this paper I will explore the symbolism, point-of-view, the imagery in this literary work, and finally my reactions to the poem.
First we will explore the symbolism used in this story. There was not very much symbolism like most poems. This narrator is very blunt about the main issue, the loneliness felt by the antagonist. In the beginning the poem says “you do not have to walk on your knees” (Oliver, 1986) which symbolizes the fact that you do not have to belittle yourself or be down on yourself because of your situation. You need to rise above that and just love yourself is what is portrayed in the part of the sentence that says to let “your body love what it loves” (Oliver, 1986). Approach your problems head on. The last symbol used is the one where she says that they could tell each other their problems but that would not stop the world from going on around them. The sun will still shine and rain will still fall.
Second element is the point-of-view. This poem is done in first person...

...City of God
In the latter half of 2002 a movie was released that was nominated for four Oscars, won acclaim from critics worldwide, and ended up winning 21 various awards from some of the most prestigious organizations in the film community. (www.imdb.com) City of God had such an impact that even the president of Brazil "reviewed and praised City of God as a needful call for change," (Ebert) due to its frighteningly real parallels with everyday life in Rio's slums, known as "favelas." (Pierce)
City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, (www.imdb.com) displays certain themes throughout its progression that contribute to the films emotional appeal. One of these important themes in City of God is that of innocence and the obviously apparent lack of it in the slums of Rio. During the first scene in the movie, the main character is simple strolling through the city with his friend, and then all of a sudden he's caught in the middle of the police and the gang, showing the precarious balance between life and death that face the residents of the slums. At another point in the movie, a woman rejects Lil Zé when he asks her to dance, because she tells him that she is here with someone already. A minute later, Lil Zé sees the woman again, this time dancing with her date,...

...
Introduction
The purpose of this study is a brief explanation of Marxism and also how it appears in The Great Gatsby“. The Great Gatsby (1925) is generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest novel.
The problem is ruler ship of higher classes on lower and worker classes of society. It is Important because the pressure of this ruler ship destroys life and also dream for the lower classes in the society.
I want to work on some critical points on this novel by Philips Northman and others, to find out how different between classes of society could damage to the people and destroy their life and dreams, and also how the story criticize or fail to critique the differences between classes of society?
From Materialism point of view this novel has some critical points about materialistic view to the life, because people ideology after world war. They pursued themselves to find ideology between matters. So this Materialistic perspective effect on individual and society and engage them to struggle to achieve more wealth.
At the end of the novel we notice how this materialistic view of life destroys their dreams.
Fitzgerald’s method of narration, illustrate the importance of form. Using Nick Carrawy as a first person narrator makes the whole novel more dramatic. As a main character in the novel, Nick becomes far more than just a...

...4/22/2005
City of God
The City of God is based on actual events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960's and 1970's. The movie is about the rise and fall of a fearsome sociopath gang leader Li'l Ze, who reigned as king of the drug lords during the 70's. The first part of the movie illustrates some of the forces that mold Li'l Ze into the man he becomes, while the second half shows his ruthless leap to power, followed by the war he wages against opposing gang leaders Carrot and Knockout Ned. The film is narrated by Rocket, a photographer who exists on the outskirts of Li'l Ze's circle of dominance and control. In the film the city is filled with ruthless acts of delinquency and is basically in chaos. There are two theories that I would like to discuss in relation to the city's unusually high criminal acts.
The first theory that I would like to discuss is the social disorganization theory.
The social disorganization theory is defined as the decline of influence of existing social rules of behavior upon individuals within a group. In essence, social disorganization is the consequence of a community's inability to realize common values and to solve the problems of its residents, resulting in the breakdown of effective social control within that community. The theory claims that delinquency is not caused at the individual level, but is considered to be...